Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-03-27

81 will see what ii Is At once, ne SAID
st is nothing, don't mind it, Shirley"
He turned and left her with q bound.
CHAPTER XIII.
''sHE Is MY WIFE"
What did it mean?
The face vanished in an instant. As
quickly as she could collect her senses,
Shirley followed Mr.. Morrison out the
hallway. She went around in the porch TO
the window where the face had been. The
master was nowhere about. No living
creature was there. She stepped out upon
the lawn beyond, and peered about under
the starlight. She saw nothing, heard
nothing.
All was night and silence.
So still it was out there, so entirely all
nature seemed unconscious of anything I'M
usual, that Shirley could almost have be-
lieved nothing unusual had happened, and
that she had imagined the face in the glass.
There was a dim light inside the room, a
brighter light outside in the porch. Might
not the optical laws of refractiOn and re-
Election, aided by a crooked pane of glass,
have twisted the image Of some very COM
monplace object into that distorted,
demoniac shape? She had read OF such
things.
At any rate, Shirley wa not one to fret
herself unnecessarily. She had so many
real worries in her life that she never went
out of her way to hunt up unreal ones.
| Above all and before all. too, there was
the supreme comforting thought, if any
thing was wrong, he, the master, would set
il right. He would see that nc harm came
to her.
That was the thought in her minda as she
went back inside the cottage, and to her
own room.
The room, it will be remembered, was
upon the ground floor.
The girl sat down beside the low, broad
window. She was too restless, too happy
to sleep. She said over and again to her
self: Fate has been very good to me, after
all. Ineyer believed such JOY was TO be
for me, Shirley Carstone."
The master loved her. He had told her
so. That was enough. No vision of guile,
of treachery or of trouble crossed her
thought. Her noble, innocent nature saw
no falseness, no weakness in those she
loved. She trusted them wholly. Yea, to
the worlds end.
Looking down the valley into the years
that were to come, Shirley saw only bright
ness. Perplexities would come perhaps.
Her hands would still be full OF work, that
she knew. Nay, as the world went, 1t
might be long before he could come and
claim her. She even thought OF that.
What then? The master loved her. That
knowledge would be q strange, sweet
presence that walked beside her day by
day to .he end, turning her heavy load
into lightneSS. She laughed in the face OF
storm, of darkness, OF the deadly lightning.
The sweet, magic presence that walked
evermore beside her would touch them and
turn all her life into blue sky and rose
cloud.
And her poem? The intense girl heart
gave 4 glad bound. Half her inspira-
ton had seemed gone when the master left
her under the willows that day long ago.
Now it came back. Now she would in
deed write her poem. She would prove
herself worthy of such a lover. He should
be SO proud Of her, in the blessed years to
come?
Rapt in her sweet visions Shirley sat
there hour after hour. Morning was at
hand. The mysterious thrill ofthe coming
day quiyered in the dark air. A timid
bird chirped family. The breath Of lilies
swept in at the open window.
Shirley started up, smiled and threw
herself upon her bed, dressed as she was.
She had spun her web of thought out for
the time. In five minutes she was in the
land Of dreams.
Shirley was a sound sleeper. The fash
ion of nervous" young lady was just
coming in. Shirley was not of that kind.
She had a clear conscience and a good dl-
gestiOn, heaven be praised!
Therefore when a human shape trod cat
like over the low window sill and into the
room, she did not waken.
The first knowledge Shirley had was an
awful consciousness that she vas dying of
suffocation. A great weight was upon her
chest. Something was pressed over her
mouth and n~ostrils, sitting her, swift and
deadly. She tried to breathe, she tried to
cry put. In vain. She struggled. She
was Tapped from head to foot in some heavy
covering that made it impossible for her to
use her hands or arms. She fought blindly
a moment or two, and then gave over.
Death was almost there, she knew. The
master, would he ever know how she died?
In the last CLEAN of consciousness, a fool
ish tale of her childhood flashed through
her memory. A cat had sat upon a child's
breast, it was said, and drawn the breath
from its n~Ostrils, and so suffocated it. Was
it a cat upon her breast?
Then she remembered no more.
Puf inSf in tho Mol Of fiun tho in
slant before il would have been too late
forever, a man sprang in at the window.
The man was Mr.. Morrison. With giant
strength he seized the creature upon the
bed and flung her off. 1t was a woman,
with waxy white face and wild, demoniac
eyes. He snatched the pillow and heavy
covering from Shirley's senseless form.
He lifted her, he famed her with his hand,
called her his Shirley, his darling, he inn
plored her to speak to him.
The wild woman flew at him like a pan
Their. She tore his face with her nails.
She buried her teeth in his hand to the
bone.
Once more he mastered her by main
strength and dragged her away from the
bed. Two strong men had followed him
IN through the q On OF them car
ried a straitiacket. He gave her into their
hands. 1t was with difficulty that even
they could hold her.
Shirley opened her eyes. The wild wo-
man saw it, aud made as if she would
spring at her again. But the two keepers
had got her into the straitiacket.
Mr.. Morrison motiOned them to be gone.
Take that devil away" he said, ''be-
fore | crush the life out of herr"
The wild woman snarled at him like 4
savage beast. The keepers forced her out
through the doorway. As she went she
gave George MORRISON a last look of help
less rage, and muttered:
Il hate you! And You would marry
mer'
Shirley heard her say il. She lived over
the horror of those few moments in her
dreams, sometimes in after years, and
would waken to find herself standing up
right, shrieking %frightfully, her brow wet